Old Ben

In Poor Richard, 1738, Benjamin Franklin wrote this maxim:

“Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power.” (Emphasis mine.)

A rewording of this maxim was used as the motto on the title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania, published by Franklin in 1759:

“Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

Franklin is perhaps the most famous of our Founding Fathers, so much so that some historians have gone so far as to assert that he “invented” the idea of the United States of America. The U.S. House of Representatives held a memorial service, April 22d, 1790, five days after Franklin’s death, at which Virginia Representative (and future President) James Madison rose to deliver the final tribute. Madison characterized the “various exertions” of Franklin’s “native genius” as having been “precious to science, to freedom, and to his country.”

Five of the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court heeded Franklin’s words June 12th, 2008, when they issued the majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush, recognizing habeas corpus rights for prisoners held at Guantánamo. Justices Kennedy, Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer correctly reasoned that a desire for temporary safety (“security”) does not justify ignoring the essential liberties guaranteed by both the Common Law and the clear and unambiguous language of the U.S. Constitution.

Old Ben would be pleased that the principles upon which this country were founded have been upheld by the Court. He knew that infringement on the rights of any person eventually leads to the destruction of rights for all. That was true in 1738, and it’s true today.